Question on Fermentation

Hello people. Long time lurker here, decided it was about time I interacted. Quick question now...

Ok, I currently have a batch of Honey Brown Ale in my primary fermentor. It has been in there for about 2 1/2 days. When it initially fermented, I had some serious blow over, my first time with that. I woke up on Thursday morning to there literally being foam spraying out of the top of my airlock, all the way to my ceiling (the lid stayed on at least) Either way, after panicking, dry heaving a bit and thinking my beer was shot to ****, I got one of those tubes, ran the foam off, and there are no problems as far as I know..... but I'm a grasshopper.

However, the real question now is on secondary fermentation. It appears as if the initial fermentation is over, literally no bubbles... maybe one every few minutes I'm missing. Should I leave the wort in there another few days, or just go straight to the secondary? Something tells me to just leave it there for the week or to be safe, but is that safe? I don't know, so I am making this thread.
Thanks for the help

Totally safe to leave it for a week.

There's a difference of opinion on that, but it doesn't seem to matter much either way, assuming your fermenter is properly sealed and the airlock bubbles are giving you an accurate picture of what's going on.

Why don't you take a gravity reading and see what it says?

Since there is nothing to be gained by racking sooner than a week, I always recommend leaving it in the primary for a week (or 10 days). Nothing to lose at all by doing this. There really isn't any reason to rush it. By the time I rack to secondary, all the trub is pretty well compacted and it makes it easy to rack it over without disturbing any "gunk". I usually leave it in secondary for two to three weeks.

Lorena

Thanks for that help. I wasn't sure if all the junk thats collected (trub? I need a dictionary I think) would **** up the taste of the beer. This is my third brew, and my first two thankfully when pretty much perfect, so that really hasn't helped me learn... though it did give me good beer, which is better than learning.

toot... I would take a hydrometer reading, but I honestly don't feel like doing the work if I don't have to. By the time I wash and sanitize everything, i thought it would just be easier to make this thread.

DoghouseCharlie said:

toot... I would take a hydrometer reading, but I honestly don't feel like doing the work if I don't have to.

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Then why not throw your beer away and buy a six pack? That'll save you even more work.